Thursday, May 10, 2007

The Israel Lobby in America

"Every time we do something you tell me America will do this and will do that... I want to tell you something very clear: Don't worry about American pressure on Israel. We, the Jewish people, control America, and the Americans know it."

Israeli Prime Minister, Ariel Sharon, October 3, 2001.

America is Israel's bitch

It's a self-evident truth that American political candidates from both sides of the political pseudo-divide, if they want to survive, find it necessary to bend over backwards for AIPAC to convince its leadership as breathlessly as possible that they have Israel's best interests at heart. There is no wondering where someone stands on Israel in U.S. politics anymore, because when it comes to the Apartheid State there is absolute bipartisan unanimity. It's as much a prerequisite for a successful career in politics as American citizenship, the ability to speak English, or the skills required to dress and feed oneself and remain continent for at least an hour at a time.

It makes no difference which party you belong to, if you're not the Lobby's bitch you'll be going nowhere. It's a game played by all, from the left to the right, and if you don't play, you can't be in the game. If we use the medium of support for Israel to measure U.S. politicians' propensity for free thought and honesty, the result is frightening. None of them, by that standard, are honest, independent, free thinkers. Counting on any given U.S. politician to declare their undying, unconditional support for Israel at election time is just as sure a bet as the sun coming up in the morning, thanks to the efforts of AIPAC.

AIPAC's control over the Congress is just one example of the many conflicts of interest warping the American political process, a systemic perversion that we're expected not to notice as democracy slowly morphs into something we no longer recognise. The U.S. Congress is now owned and operated by rich American Zionists who exert influence via AIPAC, which represents the apex of a complex network of pro-Israel lobby groups or political action committees (PACs) that fund the election campaigns of pro-Israel candidates. A whopping half of the money donated to Democratic candidates comes from the American Jewish community, which constitutes only 2% of the country's population.

There is officially a problem when a foreign lobby group becomes so powerful that taking a balanced, logical, moral position on vital issues of national security is made impossible for a government. The interests of Israel and the Israel lobby conflict with the interests of the U.S. and its democratic process, regardless of the claims of those who would have us believe that those interests are one and the same. It's incumbent on each politician to back the policies that they believe best serve their country, but in the case of American politics and especially the presidential election, it's a matter of fact that whoever is to slack off on support for Israel will pay for their morality with failure. Without the support of the Zionist mass media complex and rich Jewish donors, campaigns die. So until the game changes and America takes her power back we won't be seeing any rebellious unilateralism from our leaders anytime soon. This is not independence or freedom. The Lobby is an obstacle to the democratic process. Israel is controlling America.

"The organized Jewish community in the U.S., prodded by the Israel Lobby, has been one of the major impediments to the kind of discourse, to any peace process that cares equally for both sides. The fact that Barack Obama felt that pressure intensely enough to insert in his speech on race a line about the real problem in the Middle East stemming not from Israel’s relationship to its neighbors but only from Islamic fundamentalism, is only the latest example of the incredible power of the Israel lobby to make questioning Israel’s policies in the U.S. a sure path to political suicide."

This letter from former U.S. Senator James Abourezk to Jeffrey Blankfort is well worth reading in its entirety.

I can tell you from personal experience that, at least in the Congress, the support Israel has in that body is based completely on political fear--fear of defeat by anyone who does not do what Israel wants done. I can also tell you that very few members of Congress--at least when I served there--have any affection for Israel or for its Lobby. What they have is contempt, but it is silenced by fear of being found out exactly how they feel. I've heard too many cloakroom conversations in which members of the Senate will voice their bitter feelings about how they're pushed around by the Lobby to think otherwise. In private one hears the dislike of Israel and the tactics of the Lobby, but not one of them is willing to risk the Lobby's animosity by making their feelings public.

Abourezk's words are echoed by former Congressman Paul Findley.

Nationwide, the lobby’s influence is pervasive, sustained and deep, a phenomenon unprecedented in U.S. history. It is impossible to explain the silence except as a reflection of profound fear.

From Congressman Jim Moran:

"AIPAC is very well organized. The members are willing to be very generous with their personal wealth. But it's a two edged sword. If you cross AIPAC, AIPAC is unforgiving and will destroy you politically. Their means of communications, their ties to certain newspapers and magazines, and individuals in the media are substantial and intimidating. Every member [of Congress] knows it's the best-organized national lobbying force. The National Rifle Association comes a close second, but AIPAC can rightfully brag that they're the most powerful lobbying force in the world today."

And from Henry Siegman, former Executive Director of the American Jewish Congress (AJC) and Middle East expert at the Council on Foreign Relations (CFR):

"When it comes to the Israeli-Arab conflict, the terms of debate are so influenced by organized Jewish groups, like AIPAC, that to be critical of Israel is to deny oneself the ability to succeed in American politics."

"Israel is our strongest ally in the region and its only established democracy... we must preserve our total commitment to our unique defense relationship with Israel by fully funding military assistance and continuing work on the Arrow and related missile defense programs [so as to help Israel] deter missile attacks from as far as Tehran and as close as Gaza."

"Last week, this event was described to me as a small gathering of friends. Looking at all of you here today; seeing so many of you who care about peace in this world; who care about a strong and lasting friendship between Israel and the United States, and who care about what's on the next page of our shared futures, I think 'a small gathering of friends' fits this crowd just right."

He then went on to fondly recollect his Jan 2006 visit to the Israeli town of Kiryat Shmona that he said resembled an ordinary American suburb where he could imagine the sounds of Israeli children at "joyful play just like my own daughters." What a sycophant. Obama is AIPAC's bitch.

Hilary Clinton is similarly obsequious in her rhetoric, and the consensus seems to be that she's even "better for Israel". Haaretz.com has even ranked all the candidates by the measure of who would best serve the interests of Israel - the "Israel Factor". I don't know about other countries, but where I come from you'd never open a newspaper to see American presidential candidates ranked in order on "the Australia Factor" page.

American subservience to Israel and Zionism is so profound that it is almost religious in nature, and can't be fully explained by the influence of a few pro-Israel lobby groups. AIPAC is only one component of an enormous Zionist power network that pervades the American body politic and beyond that into the very fabric and psychology of American culture. Professor Joel Kovel writes:

The lobbies as such are therefore powerful enforcers of a much more broadly based system. This develops within what is called civil society, the interconnected set of institutions that comprises the connective tissue of a nation, and includes churches and synagogues, schools, libraries, publishers, and a wide range of community organizations. Among this great mass certain Zionist organs of repression have crystallized in recent years—Campus Watch, CAMERA, the David Project, and so forth—and, in alliance with traditional Zionist groups such as the Anti-Defamation League and the Zionist Organization of America, have acted as focal points of repression. I am sure that they communicate with each other, with AIPAC, and with other major Jewish organizations, as well.

But while there are definitely lobbies among these networks, the overall network is no lobby. It would be better to call it, as sociologist James Petras has, a “Zionist Power Configuration,” or perhaps we could say, a “Zionist Apparatus.” What we call it is not especially important; what matters is that we understand that the loose and decentralized character of the network floats atop an attitudinal sea that supports the basic notions of Zionism, and functions to structure the Israeli cause in the collective mind.

The American media machine is perhaps the most important and powerful arm of the Lobby for its role in creating and fostering pro-Israel sentiment whilst instilling in the people a fear of 'terrorists' and 'Islamic fundamentalists'. TV media dictates the status quo, sets the psychological scene and shows us how to think. Much of the media's power is in what it doesn't do - that is, show the public honest, fearless reporting on the horror of war and the facts on the ground in places like Gaza and Iraq. This is the era of embedded journalism where the media and the military join forces to produce and present carefully choreographed 'war' imagery for insertion into the American psyche, a sanitised Hollywood version, rated G and fit for mainstream consumption ('militainment'). That's if you get to see any at all: Israel forbids journalists entry into Gaza during military operations even against the orders of its own Supreme Court, and routinely killsmedia personnel.

There is no real mainstream awareness of how surreally counter-democratic and insidious this is, and as a result, this perversion of democracy is becoming normalised over time. When something is identified as an obstacle to such a fundamental principle as democracy, when is it acceptable to ignore it? The Israel lobby has taken over the government of the United States, and until we acknowledge and address the problem, America will remain Israel's imperial bitch.

[The Jerusalem Summit] endeavors to cultivate "awareness of [the] fact that the Evangelical Christian community is both a strategic ally and a strategic asset for Israel. This is a community which has not only demonstrated its staunch and unflinching support for the State of Israel and the People of Israel, but is also the only segment of humanity which has (a) the spiritual energy, (b) the numerical mass, and (c) the moral resolve to effectively confront the phenomenon of global Islamism." [source]

Not "global terrorism" or even "Islamic extremism" - "global Islamism", as in the religion itself. What the Jerusalem Summit is saying is that the Evangelical Christian community is an asset to the Zionist war on Islam.

Below is a PBS documentary hosted by Bill Moyers about the radical right wing Christians United For Israel cult, led by deluded Zionist lapdog Pastor John Hagee.

The rabidly Zionist evangelical Christian right constitutes some of the most powerfully visible evidence that Zionism is the premier threat to world peace. Watching these bloodthirsty flag-waving religious nut-jobs cheer and weep and pray with fervor for the annihilation of Iran and its people is about as scary as it gets.

This is group insanity in its rawest form. These cultists are the embodiment of fanaticism and the unfathomable danger of institutionalised delusion. These are America's Christian equivalents to Israel's insanely racist Talmudic Zionist Jews. And they would have us believe that 'God' approves of this madness, and 'founded Israel'. T'would be a God most unholy with hands most unclean that would give rise and sustenance to that shitty little state.

Pages

This website

hasn't been added to since 2007 but might be useful as an introductory research resource on the power of the American Israel Lobby, the Israeli origins of the so-called "war on terror", evidence linking Israel and its U.S. agents to the 9/11 attacks and the Zionist agenda behind U.S. Middle East policy. It is fixed for the sake of clarity and conciseness and will not change. For newer material, see the Crimes of Zion and Wake Up From Your Slumber blogs.